Cambridge Capital Group (CCG) is a leading business angel group of 40 investors who have been investing in hi-tech businesses for ten years. We formed in the Autumn of 2000 and have been backing technology start-ups in the region since then. Members have invested several millions of pounds into more than 25 live portfolio companies in the Cambridge technology cluster.
We are a private syndicate of angel investors and have been active since our first investment in early 2001, although the founders have been successful private investors in technology start-ups since the mid 1990's. Successes include Bookham Technology and nCipher, AIM listings of ITM Power and Bango, and DanioLabs, sold to Summit Plc. More recently, portfolio company Phonetic Arts was acquired by Google in December 2010, and Ubisense listed on AIM in June 2011, giving attractive returns to our seed investors.
The CCG 2012 Convention will take place in late May in Cambridge. Our selection process is open to new proposals that meet our investment criteria. Please submit an executuve summary if you wish to be considered to make an investment presentation.
Disclaimer
Cambridge Capital Group is not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Cambridge Capital Group does not and will not give advice as to the merits of entering into any particular transaction. This communication is provided for information only and is not in any circumstances intended to constitute advice as to the merits of the recipient, or any other person buying, selling or subscribing for any investment or engaging in any other transaction. Any person seeking such advice should consult a person authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to give such advice. This communication is exempt from the general restriction (in section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000) on the communication of invitations or inducements to engage in investment activity on the ground that it is made to a certified sophisticated investor or high net worth individual; and hence the content has not been approved by an authorised person.
The Cambridge Capital Group winter meeting took place in February, with five high quality investment presentations from early-stage and growth businesses. Our next investor presentation event will take place in May at the annual CCG convention. Several investments are being finalised in some of the recent deal flow enjoyed by members.
CCG Trust news: our 2012 Investors in Wildlife Appeal is launched. See the CCG Trust page for details and links. More than £11,000 already raised to date by February 2012 in support of two excellent conservation projects in Zambia.
New investments in 2011-12:
Open Frontiers, January 2012: CCG supported a development round in this fast-growing leisure industry software business
Cambridge Communication Systems, December 2011: a broad consortium of private investors has backed the experienced founding team of this mobile network small cell backhaul business.
Arachnys, December 2011: CCG participated in a consortium of investors in this emerging markets data mining company launched from the ideaSpace at the Cambridge University Entrepreneurship Centre.
Phase Vision, December 2011: a broad syndicate of London and Cambridge based business angels funded the development round of this white light metrology business, supplying measurement systems to British manufacturing.
E-Go Aeroplanes, September 2011: CCG members joined an investment syndicate led by Marshalls Aerospace of Cambridge, which will support the building and first flight of an award winning new light aircraft design in 2012.
Pasmarine, July 2011: a private syndicate of investors provided second round funding for this regionally based remote genset management system business for mobile telecoms, known by the brand name Telgenco.
A very successful CCG Presentation Day was held on October 20th, for members and sponsors, at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. Six companies have been selected for follow-up work and are being considered for investment; prospects include specialist technology companies in the following sectors: manufacturing inspection, leisure industry software, mobile networks infrastructure, lab products for cell cultures, emerging markets corporate search and e-learning publishing platform. All companies have early revenues. Other autumn events 2011: NRP Angel Investment Day (AiD), in conjunction with NRP Innovation Centre, November 16th, Norwich Research Park.
Portfolio company, Ubisense, listed on AIM in late June 2011. At the placing price the renamed company, Ubisense Group plc, was valued at £38.6m. Specialists in asset tracking and network mapping systems for large companies, Ubisense has been growing fast with many blue chip and international customers. Since then Ubisense has announced its first acquisition and H1 results, showing a large increase in sales.
Our 2011 Golf Day took place on the links of the Royal West Norfolk Golf Club in June. Generously sponsored by leading patent attorneys, Gill Jennings & Every, members also enjoyed dinner at a suitable hostelry on the coast.
CCG's 2011 Convention took place in May at Jesus College once again. A number of new opportunities and portfolio companies made presentations to a full capacity audience of members; several ventures are being followed-up with a view to investment. The Chief Investment Strategist from Merrill Lynch Bank of America gave the key note speech, covering macro investment trends from a global perspective.
Expansion of the CCG investor group: several new members have signed up in 2011 with commercial experience ranging from Low carbon technology, Intellectual Property, Healthcare, Agricultural trading and the Media industry. CCG now comprises 40 investors and associates.
The CCG 2011 Spring Investor Meeting took place in February, in the august surroundings of Kings College: eight opportunities screened from the software and medtech sectors were presented. Three are being considered for investment.
Exit for portfolio company, Phonetic Arts, a world leader in automatic voice production for video games: announces in December 2010 that it is being acquired by Google. Angel investors achieve a significant multiple of capital invested...
Two exciting, post-revenue software businesses attracted investment from CCG in late 2010: Touch Type, which has launched a market leading predictive text engine for Android smartphones; and Featurespace, the fraud detection and customer profiling analytics business that counts Betfair plc as a customer and shareholder. The lead investors were Octopus Ventures and NESTA, respectively.
Recent events attended by CCG management included the Cambridge Phenomenon 50th Anniversary Conference at the Wellcome Genome Centre and the 10th Anniversary Dinner of the University of Cambridge Challenge Fund, hosted by Cambridge Enterprise at Pembroke College.
The CCG 2010 Autumn Meeting, was held on October 21st at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge. A top quality selection of new opportunities and two portfolio businesses pitched to our members. Follow-up analysis and due diligence is continuing for some of these.
10th Anniversary of CCG...Members and sponsors gathered for the 2010 CCG Annual Convention in May this year, our tenth since our business angel investment group was formed back in 2000. Since then we have invested many millions of pounds into high-tech start-ups in the region, helping to develop the UK's leading technology and innovation cluster.
In the early summer CCG completed its investment into Pooltronix, a post-revenue, automatic chlorine-free treatment business for commercial swimming pools; a roll-out of its products is now underway to munipal leisure centres, hotel groups and also into France, the largest export market.
Angel awareness event, 29th April 2010... CCG will give the keynote talk at this event at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, organised by EEDA and the British Association of Business Angels. For more information see Membership page.
Seeking promising startups! 2010 Annual Convention: we now seek good propositions from early-stage tech businesses seeking equity funding, for presentation at our forthcoming main event on May 20th. Please send us an appropriate summary via the contact page on this site if you believe your company meets our members' criteria for investment...
CCG enters its 10th year of existence...Our members have been backing high-tech start-ups in Europe's biggest technology cluster for more than a decade.
Our first investor event of 2010 was held in February at the beautiful Gonville & Caius College in Cambridge. 5 new software businesses presented to our members and sponsors, and one diagnostics portfolio company seeking a second round of funding. Follow-up analysis is taking place to establish which propositions may attract CCG investment.
New Year 2010 - best wishes to all our members, suppliers and sponsors. The CCG events programme for 2010 is being set up and we look forward to a busy year...
The spring meeting will take place on February 25th and the annual convention is scheduled for May 20th at Jesus College once again. A seed investment in Base4Innovation was completed in January; CCG participated in a London-Oxford-Cambridge syndicate to support this spinout from the Cavendish Laboratory.
October 14th 2009 - the CCG Autumn investor meeting. New investments are being negotiated following successful presentations to our member investors. A seed investment in Oval Medical Technologies Ltd. was completed in February 2010.
September 2009 - publication of the CCG Asia-Pacific Growth Stocks Report, following an intensive quantitative screening project on behalf of our founder members, utilising expert consultants from the City and a team of analysts. Please contact us for further information...
2009 CCG Annual Convention - Jesus College, Cambridge, May 21st. A high turnout for our main investor event of the year, with a good selection of companies and three transactions being worked on through the summer... In addition, plans made to research Asia-Pacific growth stocks for our members.
CCG 2009 Spring Meeting – Clare College, Cambridge. Our first event of 2009 took place on February 26th. In the meantime we are negotiating seed investments from companies that presented to us in the last quarter of 2008. Our iinvestments in Pneumacare, GenDrive and Augmentra completed during the course of the year.
CCG Autumn Meeting – Kings College, October 9th. Members and sponsors gather in the prestigious and historic surroundings of Kings College to hear presentations from six carefully screened early-stage technology businesses. Sectors range from software for mobile applications, medical diagnostics and devices, automotive design for electric vehicles, aluminium recycling technology for packaging and electronics for renewable energy generation.
CCG Convention 2008 - Jesus College, Cambridge, May 22nd-23rd.
Recently expanded CCG with five investors joining the group in 2008, sees presentations from 7 carefully screened early-stage companies seeking angel finance. 1-2 will be selected for funding by CCG...A number of portfolio companies also gave presentations of their progress.
Portfolio company name change to SUMMIT PLC (previously VasTox plc): Read more...
DanioLabs Ltd. acquired by VasTox plc, an AIM listed biotech company. DanioLabs was a CCG portfolio company that has merged its zebrafish based biotech business with VasTox (in April 2007), to create a world-leading company in its field.The combined group is now called Summit plc.
Two recent IPO's by portfolio companies gave substantial profitable realisations to CCG members:
Bango achieved a listing on AIM in June 2005, raising £7m at a valuation of £35m. Bango provides a technology platform as a service to content providers, enabling billing via the mobile phone operators. CCG members invested in the start-up round alongside other Cambridge based seed investors.
ITM Power, floated on AIM in June 2004 raising £10m at a valuation of £40m. CCG investors backed this fuel cell technology company in 2002, and the potential for its hydrophilic polymer materials in new energy industries has been recognised by a consortium of institutional investors. The share price did extremely wellover the subsequent two years, giving large profits to the angel investors.
